A student sent DOGE-style emails to Brown administrators. Congress gave him a spotlight.
A student sent DOGE-style emails to Brown administrators. Congress gave him a spotlight. 'Instead of answering, Brown's response was retaliation,' rising junior Alex Shieh told lawmakers during a congressional hearing.
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Is Alex Shieh Brown University's version of Elon Musk? What he has to say
Shieh is facing potential discipline after asking Brown staffers about their jobs.
WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans on June 4 rallied to the defense of a Brown University student who was investigated by the Ivy League school after he sent administrators DOGE-style emails asking them to justify their jobs.
During a congressional hearing, GOP lawmakers lauded the rising junior, Alex Shieh, for shedding light on what they viewed as administrative bloat at prestigious colleges.
Democrats, meanwhile, criticized their counterparts for complaining about college costs while voicing support for President Donald Trump's major domestic policy bill, which would make federal financial aid less available for many students across higher education.
Though Shieh was ultimately cleared of student conduct violation charges, his story grabbed national attention. It also underscored widespread debates about free speech on campuses beyond Brown and the high sticker prices of degrees at some universities.
The primary focus of the congressional hearing was to discuss whether some of the country's most selective colleges have violated antitrust laws in their financial aid policies.
Accusations of malfeasance by financial aid offices have prompted major litigation in recent years, including a 2022 price-fixing lawsuit against more than a dozen prominent schools, including Brown. After a protracted court fight, the Rhode Island university settled with a group of students for nearly $20 million in July 2024. (The school continues to deny any wrongdoing.)
Read more: 'Please Admit': Rampant donor preferences alleged in college financial aid lawsuit
In February, after Trump regained the White House, he brought in tech billionaire Elon Musk to helm the Department of Government Efficiency. Shock spread through the federal workforce when DOGE abruptly asked nearly every agency employee to provide a list of five things they'd accomplished over the prior week. At the time, Musk warned that those who didn't respond would be "furthering their career elsewhere."
In March, Shieh took a page out of Musk's book. As part of an investigation for the Brown Spectator, a conservative and libertarian school publication, he sent similar questions to nearly 4,000 Brown administrators. According to Shieh's website, he asked them to explain their roles, what tasks they had performed over the prior week and how Brown students would be impacted if their positions were eliminated.
"Some of them answered, and the ones who answered seemed to have pretty useful jobs," Shieh told lawmakers on June 4. "I guess we can infer that the ones who didn't have jobs that are not so important."
In early April, the university launched a preliminary student conduct review of Shieh for improperly using data accessed through a school platform. He was cleared a month later of facing any disciplinary action.
In the months since, Shieh's case became a rallying cry for Republicans, who have doubled down on their criticism of Ivy League universities in recent months, as Trump slashed billions in federal funding for schools like Brown, Harvard and Columbia.
"Mr. Shieh, thank you for stepping forward and letting the country know what's going on at these elite universities," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said at the hearing on Capitol Hill.
Brian Clark, a Brown spokesperson, said in a statement that the university has grown its workforce responsibly over time. Its staff members are vital to the school's work, including medical care and scientific research, he said.
"While the national conversation about higher education finances and costs is important, it's regrettable that a witness in today's hearing offered so many misrepresentations about Brown's students, employees and efforts to provide an exceptional educational experience and conduct high-impact research," he said.
Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, echoed that criticism during the hearing.
"This is much ado about nothing," he said.
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
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